The Ascendant Stars_Book Three of Humanity's Fire Read online

  ‘Something’s happened to change their mind,’ the admiral said. ‘Ah, look – there!’

  A small craft darted into view, weaving in and out of the access tubes and grappler beams. As it raked the hulls of both ships with volleys of greenish energy bolts, the admiral’s sensor systems grabbed images from hull feeds and presented a tactical composite. The attacking craft had a bullet-shaped aft section ending in a pyramidal thrust assembly; the forward section had the look of a tapering cockpit in an oddly textured grey material, flanked left and right, above and below, by four curved weapon sponsons. And the newcomer had not come alone.

  ‘The drones are coming back,’ said Marko, voice wavering.

  ‘Not so many this time,’ Kao Chih observed.

  ‘Either they expect these unknown attackers to try and board us as well,’ the admiral said, ‘or … ’

  The security station shivered and the screens flickered as one into a spiral standby symbol. A second or two later the external feed came back on – the Suneye ship, its boarding tubes and grapples, was still there but beyond they could see a wide segment of landscape with ragged edges, its surface made grey by millennia of exposure to hard vacuum. They had jumped back to the gas giant in the red dwarf system, only now they were on the other side, away from the fighting.

  ‘They brought us back,’ said the admiral, smiling.

  ‘So we’ve a chance of being rescued,’ said Marko.

  ‘Only if we can stop these Suneye bandits from towing us off to their prison.’ The admiral got up, went to one of the cabinets and opened it. Tough but flexible body armour was handed round, jackets and leggings, and goggled face protectors. All of it had a silky black sheen.

  ‘Sabotage,’ the admiral said. ‘We fight our way onto their ship, find some important-looking systems and set a few shaped T9 charges. Oh, and slap a few on those boarding tubes as well. Sergeant, how would you rate our chances?’

  Miczek squinted back at the screens. ‘Far fewer drones patrolling our corridors than before, sir. I’d give good odds on reaching their ship.’

  The admiral grinned and broke out the weaponry.

  Kao Chih, though, felt that the admiral was being less than candid about encountering the Suneye drones. Might they not have something more powerful than darts to fire? And could there be other lethal countermeasures hidden in ceilings and bulkheads?

  Kao Chih was passed a beam pistol: cased in some lightweight alloy and coloured white and blue, it looked and felt like a toy.

  ‘Don’t be deceived by the lightness,’ said Sergeant Miczek as she gave an identical one to Marko. ‘These are droptroop issue, a redesigned model with a twenty per cent range improvement over the previous mark.’

  ‘We’ll divide into two teams,’ said the admiral. ‘Young Marko will stay with the sergeant, keep his wits about him and follow orders, understood?’

  Marko grinned nervously and bobbed his head.

  ‘Kao Chih,’ Zhylinsky went on. ‘You’re with me. Let’s teach those Suneye machines a thing or two, eh?’ He pointed at one of the screens, which showed that the Viteazul was being hauled on a course leading around the gas giant towards the vicinity of the Roug–Vox Humana flotilla. ‘Time is limited. Let us be on our way.’

  Via more maintenance passages, communal rooms and underfloor crawlways they reached a medstation near the sternmost of the boarding tubes in ten minutes or so. Once the sole patrolling disc-drone had passed by on its way along the dorsal corridor, the admiral led them out along the passageway. He used a local hatch override to lock all the nearby hatches, sealing off that particular corridor junction. Then they approached the oval opening in the ship’s hull. Silver-green hooks curved round the edges of it, their tips sunk into the bulkhead metal. Beyond, the opaque conduit waited, undulating slightly.

  ‘Should be zero-gee along this stretch,’ the admiral warned, readying his short-bodied beam rifle before ducking through.

  Kao Chih watched in admiration as the older man kicked off from the rim of the sealing ring and gracefully glided up the tube. He recalled his own experiences with weightlessness on board Blacknest Station and mentally prepared himself for a display of oafish clumsiness. But his performance turned out to be adequate, with one or two bumps along the way. Sergeant Miczek arrived a moment later with Marko tethered to her waist.

  ‘And here we are,’ said the admiral. ‘Not exactly constructed on a Human scale but I’m sure we’ll manage.’

  They crouched together in a spherical space about ten metres across with an artificial gravity noticeably lower than the Viteazul’s. Although there was no main light source, most of the odd-shaped panels gave off some radiance, mainly from the glowing threadlike lines that were laid out in an angular network all across the curved surface. Several octagonal tunnels led off at a variety of angles and as they crouched there Kao Chih began to wonder why their presence had not provoked a response. Then Zhylinsky, who had been hunched over a small device, looked up.

  ‘In case you’re wondering why there’s been no welcoming committee, it would seem that those unknown interceptors have followed us here, so most of the Suneye drones are out there fending them off.’

  He held up a datapad with a foldout screen, and they leaned closer to see. There were perhaps a dozen of the bullet-shaped craft diving past and between the larger ships, pursued by flocks of silvery drones, both arrowheads and discs. As they studied the images, the Suneye vessel shuddered for a second.

  The admiral tapped a control and the picture swung up and zoomed in on a mysterious ship keeping pace over 300 kiloms astern. Magnification brought it closer, revealing shining surfaces and a strangeness of design that provoked a certain unease in Kao Chih. The ship was large, easily twice the size of the Viteazul, and had a diamond-shaped profile, its prow one of the acute vertices. The flanks of the deep hull angled inwards and had lines of bulbous grey protrusions spaced all along them – when one of them irised open and an interceptor flew out their function was immediately apparent.

  This was a carrier, Kao Chih realised, a capital ship that had seen combat, going by the scorching and impact gouges that marred the glittering ornamentation in many places. The upper hull had tower structures at all four corners and one amidships: the starboard one was a torn and blasted ruin while the one at the prow had a Y-shaped mast jutting up from it.

  ‘The source of our captors’ woes?’ Kao Chih said, just as the Suneye ship lurched.

  ‘Soon to be joined by sabotage closer to home,’ the admiral said, patting his bandolier of charges draped across his chest. ‘Now – Sergeant, you and young Marko will hold this junction while Kao Chih and I venture off in search of drives and generators.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ said Miczek.

  ‘Excellent,’ Zhylinsky said, glancing at Kao Chih, who nodded and followed him down a narrow passage lit by brightly glowing red, yellow and blue lines. The passage was low, forcing them to move at a crouch with the admiral pausing frequently to consult his datapad’s sensor readings. As they progressed, Kao Chih tried to imagine how he might describe these events in a letter to his parents back on the Retributor – Dear Mother and Father: In the course of the evacuation and escape from Pyre, we engaged our pursuers in battle and I found myself taking part in an assault on one of the enemy ships. I and three others against hundreds of armed machines …

  After several minutes the passage curved up and opened out into a small, polyhedral compartment. Every corner was occupied by a strange plinth whose apex was a bulbous, translucent screen that pulsed with symbols and flickered with triangular ripples of data.

  ‘Control nodes, Pilot Kao,’ said the admiral. ‘Eight of them. Destroy these and the whole ship would be crippled … ’

  ‘Your damage assessment is correct, Admiral,’ said a clear voice from all around them. ‘But since our ships can retask functions easily to other locations, this vessel would be crippled for less than a minute.’

  The hairs stood up on Kao Chih’s neck. T
he admiral bared his teeth in an angry grimace.

  ‘And you are?’ he said.

  ‘The Clarified Sevayr, commander of this vessel.’

  ‘So naturally you are an accurate and trustworthy source of information,’ the admiral said. ‘Forgive me if I am unconvinced by your proclamation.’

  ‘Forgiveness is not in my nature,’ said the voice of the Clarified Sevayr. ‘However, punishment is.’

  A twin-muzzled turret popped out of an opening in the wall and fired four energy bolts in quick succession. The admiral cried out and fell to the floor. Kao Chih snapped off one shot in return but missed as the turret disappeared. Then he knelt to examine the admiral’s wounds, which turned out to be chillingly accurate and cruel – the bolts had struck both hands and both feet, rendering him helpless. As Kao Chih pulled a medkit from one of his waist pouches, the admiral insisted on giving him orders, voice a strangled whisper.

  ‘Use the charges … set timer with the left tab, arm with … the right … ah, that’s better … not so sore … ’

  Kao Chih had found some painkiller dermals and pressed them onto the admiral’s throat. Then it was a case of dragging him back down the passageway to the junction, all the time waiting for the searing stab of an energy bolt …

  Then the junction came into sight and his heart sank – there was no one to be seen. Gasping, arms aching, he struggled with the admiral’s weight and as he drew nearer he could see a dark form lying motionless off to the side.

  ‘Is the sergeant there, lad?’ said the admiral. ‘She should be helping you – Sergeant!’

  As he pulled the admiral into the spherical junction, Kao Chih saw that it was indeed the sergeant lying dead on the floor. Of Marko there seemed to be no sign.

  ‘The sergeant had to die, of course,’ said the voice of the Clarified, suddenly. ‘She was actually quite competent and thus presented a genuine threat.’

  Kao Chih noticed the charred, twisted wreckage of a few drones as he went to check the sergeant’s body. Her face protector was missing and there was a small black cauterised hole in her forehead. Squatting there, he rocked back on his heels, rubbed his face and tried to find a calm path between fear and anger. There didn’t seem to be one.

  ‘Admiral,’ he said. ‘The sergeant’s dead.’

  ‘Murdered,’ the older man muttered. ‘By a coward who hides himself.’

  ‘I’ll have to get you back to the Viteazul,’ Kao Chih said, moving over to lift the admiral under the arms.

  ‘No, I’m not important,’ Zhylinsky said. ‘Leave me here – go and place those charges – damn you, that’s an order!’

  ‘With respect, sir,’ Kao Chih said. ‘I am not under your—’

  There was a flash and the crack of an energy bolt striking the curved wall. Kao Chih ducked and glanced down the boarding tube to see Marko clutching his beam pistol, eyes wide with fear as he floated in the zero-gee.

  ‘Please, Marko,’ he said carefully. ‘Will you help me with the admiral? – he’s hurt … ’

  Trembling with anxiety, Marko swallowed and put away the weapon. ‘There was firing … and she was dead … I didn’t hit anything … ’

  Kao Chih got the admiral into the boarding tube, not responding to the older man’s pleas. When Marko joined them, Kao Chih reached for the admiral’s bandolier of charges, unclipped it and tugged it out from under his chest armour.

  ‘Good man,’ the admiral whispered.

  Outside the weightless opaque tube, the mysterious attack craft danced and darted past, exchanging volleys of bright spikes with pursuing flocks of silver drones. And it occurred to Kao Chih that if the unknown attackers had wanted to they could have destroyed both ships by now.

  Together the two men guided the wounded admiral up the connecting tube. Halfway, Kao Chih paused and pulled one of the shaped charges from the belt, showing it to Marko.

  ‘I’m going back to finish this job,’ he said, fingering the charge timer. ‘I’ve set this for seven minutes – as soon as I’m out of sight, stick this on the tube wall and arm it with this button. Got it?’

  ‘But is seven minutes long enough?’

  ‘I sincerely hope that it will be more than enough. I’m looking forward to retelling this story under the influence of strong alcohol.’

  He slung the bandolier across shoulder and chest and pushed away on a return glide to the Suneye vessel. Re-entering the spherical junction, he became heavy again, and the voice spoke.

  ‘Back so soon, Human? Apparently my punishment examples were not sufficiently persuasive.’

  Having noted the position of the sergeant’s body and the similarity of her wounds to those suffered by the admiral, Kao Chih was ready. When an overhead section slid open and the antipersonnel turret popped out he was already moving and firing. His first shot burned a glowing gouge across curved panels. The second struck a spray of sparks from the turret mounting, the third hit home and it burst apart in a flash of wrecked components. Another turret opened up from just inside a passage leading forward, forcing Kao Chih to back away behind the boarding tube’s oval hatch. His hand found the sergeant’s dropped beam pistol and with twice the firepower he was able to quickly neutralise the turret.

  There was an abrupt silence, no measured voice offering sarcastic commentary. Perhaps their host was otherwise occupied, he thought.

  The curved deck lurched violently underfoot and a grinding crash reverberated throughout the ship. I’m running out of time, he thought suddenly and scrambled back along the aftward passage, alert for more security turrets. He planted several charges down the stretch leading to the compartment where the admiral was shot then retraced his steps, arming the devices as he went. Kicking aside still smoking pieces of drone, he then ventured up the forward passage, setting and arming another eight charges before returning to the hatch area. Kao Chih still had a handful left so he climbed up into a wide but low passage and crawled along it, pausing after a dozen metres or so. He had just fixed the last charge in place when he heard a loud bang and felt air start rushing past him, back the way he’d come.

  The charge I gave to Marko, he thought. He must have set the timer too soon …

  In the next instant an armoured divider slammed down, cutting him off from the decompression source but trapping him in with several devices now primed to detonate in minutes. If there was a disabling procedure the admiral hadn’t told him and he never thought to ask – his only option was to follow the low passage to its end and hope that he could get behind a hatch strong enough to withstand the explosion. On hands and knees he scrambled madly along, turned a corner and found himself facing an abrupt end. Then he realised that there was a long gap above his head which was high enough for him to stand up.

  The moment he did so, immensely strong hands grabbed him from behind and bodily hauled him up onto some kind of platform. He’d hardly begun to take in his surroundings when a bag was roughly tugged over his head. Kao Chih’s cries of surprise turned into angry shouts as he was spun round and hurried off. Moments later he heard a hatch close and pressurise and seconds later multiple thuds. The deck shook underfoot and his captors staggered as they marched him along. There was another lurch and Kao Chih swung a kick round, knocking the legs out from under one of them. Bellows of fury rang out as he used his free hands to try and wrench free of the other’s grip.

  But a clenched fist dealt his head a blow that made his ears ring and his senses spin. Tripping, he fell to his knees. Someone grabbed both his forearms with hands that were bony and rough-skinned – it was like being seized by fingers made of old boot leather – and bound his wrists with plastic stripping. A voice muttered in his ear, hoarse, incomprehensible words, then he was hauled upright. A corrupt mustiness filled his nostrils. Another voice spoke, same hoarse, dry sound but with a different tone, to which the first replied.

  And in his head, the linguistic enabler that Tumakri had given him weeks ago began picking apart the syllables, matching grammar patterns, runnin
g definitional comparisons, and eventually feeding something intelligible into his auditory centres.

  ‘ … bad fate, hear you me, cracked fortune. For we to attack the hull of devices before the life-ripe one … ’

  ‘Your fate, your fortune – whispers from the ash, all is … ’

  ‘You say? See Old Irontooth when we bring him this one – with the other one, makes only two from whole hull. Very poor, bad fate … ’

  Listening to this exchange, Kao Chih experienced a shiver of déjà vu that sent him back to memories of his capture at Blacknest Station by the minions of Munaak, the gangster lord who murdered Tumakri. He wondered if there was any point in offering up prayers to his ancestors.

  Honourable forebears, if it pleases you to extend deliverance to this humble and unworthy descendant, would it be possible to provide it via someone reliable, be they mechanical or organic?

  A hatch slid open to admit them, sighed shut behind them. Kao Chih was steered forward several paces, stopped, turned, then pushed back to drop into a hard chair. The wristcuffs were removed but then his wrists were bound separately to the chair arms while his ankles were restrained. Only then was the hood removed.

  The room wasn’t very bright yet it took Kao Chih’s eyes a moment or two to adjust. Illumination came from the same coloured thread clusters that he had seen elsewhere on the Suneye ship. But it was the sight of a Sendrukan, similarly chair-bound and facing him from a couple of metres away, that grabbed his attention.

  ‘Ah, the admiral’s disciple. You proved more competent than I originally anticipated. Perhaps I should have killed you first.’

  The facing chairs were placed in some kind of alcove next to a raised platform walkway. The Clarified Sendrukan wore a close-fitting green uniform with blue highlights. Kao Chih saw that additional restraints held chest, waist and head in place. He did not know what the Clarified meant, but he was ready with a rejoinder.

  ‘In one’s fondest imaginings,’ he said, ‘one may wish for much, only to find that reality is somewhat unaccommodating.’